Wrong Priorities
Thought for the day “Light travels faster than sound. That’s why some people appear bright until they speak”
“If you can’t see the bright side of life, polish the dull side” (Rowan Atkinson).
Amazing to read again in the Norwegian newspapers that the police have arrested another foreign tourist for flying a drone. This time is was over the capital city of Oslo, as reported here –
https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/en-person-pagrepet-etter-droneflygning-i-oslo–1.16697099
What is amazing is that while a tourist flying a small drone (presumably causing no damage) gets arrested, on the streets below people can be seen openly selling drugs and injecting themselves. If, as the Norwegian Police keep saying, they do not have the resources to investigate many crimes in Norway, then why are they focussing on tourists flying drones??? Surely a much more SERIOUS issue is the open selling of hard drugs on the streets in the city centre (especially the areas around Storgata and Gronland) ? If you have limited resources then why focus on trivial ‘crimes’ (and I would not consider flying a small drone over most of Oslo a crime) then why not focus on the SERIOUS issues like hard drugs? There are also the other serious crimes, like the increase in knife attacks in the city, but Norwegian Police are arresting tourists flying drones. My experience when contacting the police in Norway is that their standard answer seems to be that they do not have the resources to investigate. I can guess why.
It seems to me that the Norwegian Police are concentrating on the ‘easy’ targets like tourists flying drones and motorists driving a few km/h over the speed limit, instead of the SERIOUS crimes like selling or using hard drugs. Surely, somebody using a knife in an attack or selling heroin should be targeted BEFORE a tourist flying a drone ???
Today’s photo is Winter in Norway, with cold and clear weather in the town of Honefoss in South Norway.
And another photo from the archives, the driver of the BRB steam train waits for his next trip up the Rothorn mountain in Brienz, Switzerland.
ALL PHOTOS ON THIS SITE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
Respect, Consideration & Fairness
jeritilley@hotmail.com
Big Brother is coming -1984 is on the way.
Thought for the day “A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.” Phyllis Diller
“The mystery of government is not how it works but how to make it stop.” P. J. O’Rourke
I picked up an interesting story on YouTube today, posted by an American lawyer, Ben Hart, who is resident in Thailand. There is a proposal in Thailand by one of the big political parties there, to give citizens there a 10 000 THB payment (about 265 euros) together with a new digital savings account and digital I.D. Even worse is the proposal that this digital money will have to be spent within a 4km radius of the resident’s home.
This is a very dangerous move if it does actually happen. What government has the right to tell a citizen where he/she can spend THEIR money ? And the linking of your digital identity to your money is a very dangerous move, as then governments will have total control over both you and your money. Say something wrong (politically incorrect) and your digital money is locked. If your ‘social credit’ is too low your digital money might also get locked.
There is a lot of news from England about Nigel Farage having his bank accounts at the Coutts Bank (part of National Westminster Bank – partly government owned) closed because of his political views and political associations. This is one sign that governments may already be taking control of people’s money.
But the proposal in Thailand to even limit somebody’s use of money to a 4km radius of their home is very worrying. No government should have this sort of control over where somebody spends their OWN money. It will become even worse if this is also linked to the ’15 minute cities’ idea, as then governments will also be to effectively limit spending and movement, all controlled by the digital I.D and linked digital money. Frightening.
If you would like to see the video by Ben Hart on YouTube, the link is –
The photo today is an early morning local train from Interlaken to Meiringen waits at Oberried in Switzerland.
And another photo from the archives….the lakeside at the town of Pembroke Wanaka, New Zealand.
ALL PHOTOS ON THIS SITE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
Respect, consideration & Fairness
jeritilley@hotmail.com
Censorship and Freedom of Speech
Thought for the day….”Turn your face to the sun and the shadow falls behind you.”
“Striving for sucess without hard work is like trying to harvest when you have not planted.”
People often criticize countries such as China for restricting freedom of speech and people’s freedoms. But now the governments around the World are being just as bad as any dictatorship. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are now censoring posts which do not comply with the official government line or which question vaccines or controls. So even when there is scientific evidence, people are being stopped from publicly questioning governments. And governments now are using coronavirus as an excuse to introduce all sorts of controls and restrictions on freedom that would never have been accepted before. People fought two World Wars so that generations could have freedom, yet now those very freedoms for which they fought (and sometimes died) and being taken away by politicians. Many, many years ago, I was taught in school an important lesson which I have never forgotten….that is to never believe everything that people tell you. Very good advice. So now when I see statistics then I am careful. And when I see the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube removing posts which go against what the politicians are promoting, then I am very, very suspicious. We are already well down a very slippery slope.
Great light and mood in this photo from Glenorchy in New Zealand, looking towards the Mount Aspiring National Park and both the Dart and the Rees valleys.
and another photo from the archives, Zebras drinking at a waterhole in Namibia –
ALL PHOTOS ON THIS SITE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
jeritilley@hotmail.com
RESPECT, CONSIDERATION & FAIRNESS
Changing names in New Zealand
Thought for the day….”For every dark night, there is a brighter day”
“Arriving at one goal is the starting point for another”.
Next time you look at a map of New Zealand, you might notice some changes. And not changes for the better either. The politicians in New Zealand are giving in to the Maori people and are changing more and more names from their English names to alternative Maori names. There are even new names for the country itself (I refuse to mention the new name for NZ) and for the two main islands, which up to now have been known as North Island and South Island. But the politicians either do not have the guts to resist or the will to resist the increasing demands of the Maori people. Changing the names of places is just another sign of how this group of people are gradually taking over New Zealand. What the politicians are ignoring is the fact that New Zealand does not belong to maori people, as they were not the original people of the country. Not only that, but under the treaty of Waitangi, they even signed agreements over land ownership. So now, after all these years, they cannot claim that it is ‘their’ land and there can be little legal right for them to insist that names of places in New Zealand are changed to their names.
But the politicians have just given in.
So tourists when the visit New Zealand will start seeing more and more Maori names, and will probably believe that NZ actually belongs to the maori people. Quite how a MINORITY group of people has got this to happen is strange. English, not maori, is the language of the majority of people in New Zealand. Places such as Mount Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand) should keep its English name. But the politicians have other ideas.
A peaceful summer scene for the photo today…another triumph for the Fuji X-E1 camera. Taken as a jpeg photo and cropped to produce this pleasing image.
and another photo from the archives….a backpacker talks to a local boy in Nepal…..
ALL PHOTOS ON THIS SITE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.
http://www.qualitysparesort.com http://www.qualityresortnorefjell.com
Deep Thinking
Thought for the day…”The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary”
“It’s not that I am smart, just that I stay with problems longer” (Albert Einstein).
It is sad and also annoying to see how in New Zealand, that a MINORITY is now trying to take control of more and more. Many people believe that the Maori people were the original people of New Zealand (not to be confused with Australian aborigines) but in fact they are not. It was the Moriori who were the original people in New Zealand, later to be followed by the Maori, who arrived from Polynesia around 1250 or 1300. The census in NZ shows that about 600 000 people claim to be Maori, or about 15% of the total population of NZ. So it is extra annoying to see that a MINORITY is trying to claim more and more rights for a land that was not theirs to begin with. Currently in NZ, they are trying to get many place names changed to their names, despite the fact that they were not the original settlers. Names such as Mount Cook (New Zealand’s highest mountain) are being replace by Maori equivalents, and even the names of the two main islands in NZ are now appearing under their Maori names. They even are even trying to replace the words ‘New Zealand’ with their own names for the country. But many NZ people are forgetting that the Maori are a MINORITY and that most of them do not use Maori language as their first language. Politicians are giving in to the minority, and even government departments are being given Maori names to keep the minority happy. Look on the internet for a telephone number for Picton Department of Conservation (DoC) and you will see that the DoC offices are now listed under their Maori names. Gradually this MINORITY is trying to claim more and more land for themselves, despite the fact that they were not the original owners of the land. And the NZ government is giving in to them, costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. All wrong.
On a happier note, today’s photo comes from the Pacific Island of Niue, where a local is deep in thought…..
and another photo from the archives…..beautiful Picton in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand
ALL PHOTOS ON THIS SITE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.
http://www.qualitysparesort.com http://www.qualityresortnorefjell.com
jeritilley 